Welcome to my website! My research group focuses on solving all sorts of pavement engineering and materials related problems. Our research spans from micro and nanoscale materials science of asphalt binders and other viscoelastic materials all the way up to solving large scale, smart, and sustainable pavement infrastructure problems.

Recent News

12-18-2024 – The summer and Fall were busy and we have several exciting updates to share. A new Master’s student, Muhammad Fahad Ali, joined our lab and is working on a new project looking at the degradation of pavement markings, rumble strips, and surfaces due to snowplows, funded by Minnesota DOT.

We also kicked off three new projects funded by IDOT:

• Alternative solvents for asphalt binder extraction in the face of the new EPA product rule about trichloroethylene (in collaboration with Prof. Imad Al-Qadi)
• Use of quarry byproduct aggregate in Otta Seals for pavement preservation (in collaboration with Prof. Erol Tutumluer)
• Continuing our work on revising inputs for mechanistic-empirical flexible pavement design in Illinois (in collaboration with Prof. Marshall Thompson) (previous report here)

We published several new articles:

• Yujia Lu’s PhD work on Molecular Dynamics modeling of self-healing asphalt capsules (available open access here)
• Renan Santos Maia’s paper on evaluation of the elastic modulus input for mechanistic-empirical pavement design for perpetual structures (available here as part of the special issue of CJCE based on the ISAP 2024 conference in Montreal).
• A new paper led by Yujia Lu on backcalculation of asphalt mixture Poisson’s ratio using the Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity test (published here in Materials and Structures)
• The latest work by the Global Consortium on Antioxidants in Asphalt (published in IJPE), a new example of research and bringing a problem to the forefront of the research world quickly and efficiently.

Finally, a huge congratulations to Renan for winning the Marshall Thompson Student Research Award at the 65th Illinois Bituminous Paving Conference. Renan was honored for his contributions to asphalt research in the state of Illinois and around the world.

06-20-2024 – Congratulations to Renan Santos Maia who published two excellent papers to start the summer! One paper, along with recent graduate Yujia Lu, explored the use of porous asphalt in Chicago and why it hasn’t succeeded yet, and the other paper published with our colleagues from Brazil explores the link between traffic safety and the pavement surface including aggregate type. You can find both papers here:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10298436.2024.2345138

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214509524004017

05-20-2024 – As we finish the semester, there are many exciting updates from our research group. Yujia Lu successfully defended his PhD in April and just graduated. He will continue his journey at UIUC as a Postdoctoral Scholar. Congratulations Yujia!

We also continue to publish our latest research findings, which you can find below:

Bayesian Neural Network for asphalt concrete dynamic modulus prediction (led by Babak Asadi): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10298436.2023.2270569

Prediction of asphalt binder elastic recovery from MSCR (led by Babak Asadi):

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061823038722

10-16-2023 – I am excited to share that our latest article on multiscale analysis and rejuvenator dosing for asphalt binders and mixtures has been published in the journal of Construction and Building Materials. As we continue to make progress in this exciting area of study, we investigated rejuvenation considering both effects of asphalt binder replacement (ABR) and re-aging of rejuvenated materials. Our analysis involved molecular, binder, and mixture scales. Thank you to Yujia Lu and Renan Santos Maia for their hard work on this project, and to BASF, SE and the Smart Transportation Infrastructure Initiative at UIUC for supporting this work. You can read our article for free for the next 50 days at the following link:

https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hx3o3O1E1UWUq

08-25-2023 – Check our our new article in Construction and Building Materials on the latest findings using the poker chip test on a set of novel modified asphalt binders. We explored rate effects and the relationship between nonlinear rutting and cracking tests, advancing closer to our goal of balanced binder design. Congratulations to Abhliash Vyas and Yudi Wang, and thanks to our collaborator, Ekkehard Jahns from BASF, SE. You can download our work for free for the next 50 days here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1heq-_LcXPlsGY

05-31-2023 – A new article is available from our group in ASCE’s Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering. This paper focuses on the relationship between nonlinear and failure properties of aged asphalt binders and their microscopic evolution using Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy. Thanks to Yujia Lu and Babak Asadi for their hard work on this article.

05-15-2023 – Congratulations to Abhilash Vyas of our group for completing his Masters Thesis and receiving his M.S. in Civil Engineering on Saturday! Abhilash will continue working with our group on his Ph.D. beginning Summer 2023.

01-31-2023 – Our recent report in collaboration with Prof. Nishant Garg’s group on self-healing asphalt binder and Portland cement is now available. Thank you to the Illinois Center for Transportation’s Smart Transportation Infrastructure Initiative for funding this work!

12-09-2022 – Our new publication in Construction and Building Materials as part of the Global Consortium on Antioxidants in Asphalt Binder was published. Check it out here!

12-14-2021 – Thanks to all from my research group for a wonderful semester! We will all be attending the TRB Annual Meeting in January 2022 in Washington, DC, and look forward to seeing many of our friends there! Wishing you all a great holiday season.